The White House reportedly knew what Flynn discussed with Russia's ambassador 'for weeks' before he resigned

Michael
Flynn with Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Florida, on December
21.REUTERS/Carlos
Barria

President Donald Trump has known "for weeks" that Michael Flynn
discussed US sanctions on Russia during his calls with Russia's
ambassador to the US, a senior White House official told
The Washington Post on Monday.

"We've been working on this for weeks," a senior Trump
administration official told The Post when asked whether the
White House was aware of reports that Flynn had discussed the
sanctions.

The White House
was apparently briefed by Sally Yates, then the acting
attorney general, on January 23 about content of Flynn's calls
with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak that Yates considered "highly
significant" and "potentially illegal."

The Post said intelligence officials began looking into potential
contact between Trump's transition team and Russian officials in
December when Russian President Vladimir Putin decided not to
retaliate against sanctions introduced by the Obama
administration. Officials discovered that Flynn called Kislyak
the day President Barack Obama imposed the new penalties and gave
him "the impression that the sanctions would be revisited at a
later time."

The Post report said FBI Director James Comey wanted to wait to
brief the new administration on the calls until after the
investigation into Flynn and his contact with Russian officials
was completed but changed his mind on January 15, after he saw
Vice President Mike Pence defend Flynn in an interview with CBS.
Pence wrongly claimed in the interview that sanctions had not
been discussed during calls between Flynn and Kislyak.

Flynn resigned Monday night, saying in his resignation letter
that "because of the fast pace of events, I inadvertently briefed
the vice president-elect and others with incomplete information
regarding my phone calls with the Russian ambassador."

"In the end, it was misleading the vice president that made the
situation unsustainable," Kellyanne Conway, the senior counselor
to Trump, told NBC on Tuesday morning. She had said Monday
afternoon that Flynn still enjoyed the "full confidence" of the
president before the White House subsequently walked back on that
statement.

Indeed, Pence was reportedly "incensed" at Flynn for misleading
him about the calls. But he was also apparently briefed by Yates
about those calls just over a week after he went on CBS.

Yates, backed by the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the
Office of the Director of National Intelligence, reportedly went
as far as to warn the White House that Flynn could be blackmailed
by the Kremlin, which knew about the secret conversations.

The pressure did not start building on Flynn to resign, however,
until last Thursday, when The Washington Post and The New York
Times reported, citing nearly two dozen current and former
officials, that Flynn had discussed sensitive national security
information with Kislyak while Flynn was still a private citizen.

When asked about those reports the next day, Trump replied that
he was "not aware" of them and that he would "look into" it.

When asked that same question by ABC's George Stephanopoulos on
Tuesday morning,
Conway replied that Stephanopoulos was "presuming all of the
information" in the Washington Post article was "completely
factual."

"I don't know all the details," Conway added. "I'm not here to
say who knew what when."

Conway had said Monday afternoon that Flynn still
enjoyed the "full confidence" of the president. The White House
then walked that statement back, saying that Trump was "still
evaluating" the situation."